Codebook for "Nonpartisan Ballots and the Partisanship of Who Serves in Office" by Daniel Butler, Adam Dynes, and Michelle Torres




DATASET: PublicData-Nonpartisan Ballots.dta

VARIABLE NAME : VARIABLE LABEL/DESCRIPTION

    st :  State Postal Abbreviation
    citynametype :  Municipality Name and Type
    city_directory_name :  Name of City in Original Source
    fipsstate :  FIPS Code for State
    fipscounty :  FIPS Code for County
    fipsplace :  FIPS Code for Place
    fipscousub :  FIPS Code for County Subdivision/Minor Civil Division
    fipsconcit :  FIPS Code for Consolidated City
    citytype :  Type of Municipality--i.e., city, town, etc.
    cityname :  Name of Municipality without its Type
    state :  State Name
    countyprimary :  County where largest proportion of munic. population resides
    countyprimaryfips :  FIPS Code for Primary County
    primarycousub :  primarycousub
    L2_2016_obs :  # of voters in Municipality in L2 Voter File
    L2_2016_d_count :  # of Democrats in Municipality in L2 Voter File
    L2_2016_r_count :  # of Republicans in Municipality in L2 Voter File
    L2_2016_np_count :  # of Independents/Non-Partisans in Municipality in L2 Voter File
    L2_2016_o_count :  # of Other Partisans in Municipality in L2 Voter File

        NOTE--The following variables starting with "ACS16_" come from the 2016 American Community Survey produced by the US Census Bureau
    ACS16_pct_homeonn :  Percent home ownership
    ACS16_med_income :  Household Median Income
    ACS16_pct_unempl :  Percent unemployment
    ACS16_total_population :  Municipality's Population
    ACS16_logpop :  Log of ACS16_total_population
    ACS16_median_age :  Median age
    ACS16_pct_white :  Percent white
    ACS16_pct_black :  Percent Black
    ACS16_pct_latino :  Percent Latino

    election_nonpartisan :  Nonpartisan elections
    oncycle_election :  On-cycle Election
    form_of_govt :  Form of Government
    councilonly_countt :  # city councilors excluding any mayor
    coun_or_mayor_count :  Sum of city councilors and mayor
    L2_coun_or_mayor_countt :  # of Mayor & City Councilors in Municipality matching to L2 Voter File
    L2_coun_or_mayor_rep :  # of Republican Mayor & City Councilors in Munic. in L2 Voter File
    L2_coun_or_mayor_dem :  # of Democratic Mayor & City Councilors in Munic. in L2 Voter File
    L2_coun_or_mayor_ind :  # of Independent/Non-Partisan Mayor & City Councilors in Munic. in L2 Voter File
    percRepubs :  Percent of Officials (Mayor/Councilors) who are Republican vs. Democratic
    percInds :  Percent of Officials (Mayor/Councilors) who are Independent vs. Repub. and Democ
    RepublicanVotSharee :  Republican Leaning of City
    Repub_mayor :  Mayor is Republican as opposed to being a Democrat
    Ind_mayor :  Mayor is Independent as opposed to being a Republican or Democrat
    congruence :  Congruence = % Officials Republican minus % Voters Republican

        NOTE--The following variable ("TW_repubshare_pres16") is from the following source: Christopher Warshaw; Chris Tausanovitch, 2022, "Subnational ideology and presidential vote estimates (v2022)", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BQKU4M, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:h3CHNRumBxPs42QMveTROg== [fileUNF]
    TW_repubshare_pres16 :  2016 republican presidential vote share
    
    median_inc :  Household median income ($10K) based on ACS16_med_income
    f_commissioner :  Form of Gov't: Commissioner
    f_council :  Form of Gov't: Council-Manager
    f_town :  Form of Gov't: Town Meeting
    all_at_large :  All Officials Elected at Large
    city_count :  1=has city electoral institution data




DATASET: officials-2017_voterfile-merged_public.csv AND officials-2017_voterfile-merged_public.dta

VARIABLE NAME : VARIABLE LABEL/DESCRIPTION
    newidoff :  Official ID# Given by Authors
    st :  State Postal Abbreviation
    state :  State Name
    city_directory :  Name of City in Original Source
    position :  Position or Title of Official
    name :  Official's Name
    firstname :  Our Estimate of Official's First Name
    middlename :  Our Estimate of Official's Middle Name
    lastname :  Our Estimate of Official's Last Name

        NOTE--The following fips_____ variables together create a unique ID for each municipality based on FIPS codes used by the US Census Bureau, allowing the data to be merged with city level data in our project and from other sources that use FIPS codes. The FIPS codes for places are unique within state, as are FIPS codes for county subdivisions and FIPS codes for consolidated cities, though FIPS codes for county subdivisions are usually also used with the FIPS code for their county, since county subdivisions cannot cross county lines.
    fipsstate :  FIPS Code for State
    fipscounty :  FIPS Code for County
    fipsplace :  FIPS Code for Place
    fipscousub :  FIPS Code for County Subdivision/Minor Civil Division
    fipsconcit :  FIPS Code for Consolidated City

    citynametype :  Municipality Name and Type
    cityname :  Name of Municipality without its Type
    citytype :  Type of Municipality--i.e., city, town, etc.
    countyprimary :  County where largest proportion of munic. population resides
    countyprimaryfips :  FIPS Code for Primary County
    L2_prob_m :  Probability Name Match to L2 Voter File
    L2_qualityindex :  Authors' Quality Index of L2 Voter File Match
    L2_type :  Highest quality L2 match=1
    census2010pop :  Population based on 2010 Census

        NOTE--The following variables from "elected" to "otherstaff" are indicator variables that classify the type of office/position that each official occupies. A value of "1" indicates that the official meets the description of that variable (e.g., a value of "1" in "elected" means that we believe that official holds an elected ofice).  We used a variety of sources to estimate whether official were elected or whether a mayor or vicemayor was on the city council, often involving looking up many officials with these titles to identify patterns across states and types of municipalities. For instance, clerks are elected in some states but not others. 
    elected :  Elected office
    mayorany :  Has Mayor Title
    mayorind :  Mayor Not on Council=1
    mayorcoun :  Mayor on Council=1
    mayorunk :  Unknown if Mayor on Council
    council :  On City Council
    councilonly :  On City Council & Not Mayor
    president :  Has President Title
    vicemayor :  Vice Mayor
    deputymayor :  Deputy Mayor
    protemmayor :  Mayor Pro Tem
    coun_or_mayor :  Is city councilor and/or mayor
    reptownmtgmbr :  Representative Town Meeting Member
    manager :  Municipal Manager
    administrator :  Municipal Administrator
    man_or_admin :  Municipal Manager/Administrator
    treasurer :  Treasurer
    clerk :  Clerk
    asstmanage :  Assistant Manager/Administrator
    police :  Police Head/Admin
    otherstaff :  Other Staff/Admin Position

    mayorcount :  # of Mayors in Municipality
    councilsize :  # of Members on Governing Legislative Body




DATASET:  Data_Validation_AMOS_public.csv

VARIABLE NAME : VARIABLE LABEL/DESCRIPTION
    st :  State Postal Abbreviation
    qualityindex :  Authors' Quality Index of L2 Voter File Match
    Type :  Highest quality L2 match=1
    surv.male :  Official indicated they were male in survey
    vf.male :  Official's match in L2 estimated to be male
    surv.age :  Official's indicated age in survey
    vf.age :  Age of official's match in L2
    surv.pid3 :  Official's self placed partisanship in survey, 1=Republican (including Ind. Leaners), 2 = Pure Independent, 3=Democrat (including Ind. Leaners)
    vf.pid3 :  Estimated partisanship of official's match in L2, 1=Republican, 2=Independent/Non-Partisan, 3=Democrat
    